Bob Lotti, a former police chief in Colma, is the new manager of the Recreation and Park Department's park patrol unit.

Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle

Bob Lotti, a former police chief in Colma, is the new manager of...

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Bob Lotti is the new manager of the Recreation and Park Department's park patrol unit, which has nearly doubled in size to handle vandalism and other issues in S.F.'s 230 park facilities.

Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle

Bob Lotti is the new manager of the Recreation and Park...

Image 3 of 4

On November 9, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Park Ranger Mark Francisco walks inside the Helen Diller playground at Dolores Park looking for signs of vandalism. After a series of high-profile vandalism incidents that occurred over the summer the size of the park patrol unit has nearly doubled.

Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle

On November 9, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Park Ranger Mark...

Image 4 of 4

On November 9, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Bob Lotti (Center) walks with Mark Francisco in Dolores Park to check for signs of vandalism at the Helen Diller playground. Bob Lotti, a former police chief in Colma, Calif., is the new manager of the Recreation and Park Department's Park Patrol Unit. After a series of high-profile vandalism incidents that occurred over the summer the size of the park patrol unit has nearly doubled.

More than two months into his job as manager of the Recreation and Park Department's park patrol unit, Bob Lotti is still getting used to the sheer number of park facilities in San Francisco.

A retired police chief from Colma, where the most notable use of the small town's space is for 17 cemeteries rather than recreation, Lotti is the first person the city has tasked with directly overseeing park rangers. The understaffed, 17-person unit responsible for patrolling San Francisco's 230 park facilities has come under fire in recent years for overtime pay mismanagement, and officials are counting on Lotti's administrative expertise to turn things around.

"I don't have preconceived notions about how the park patrol unit was run," said Lotti, 50. "Fresh ideas were part of my sale."

Lotti was hired after an outside review concluded that the park patrol should have one person focused on its supervision, instead of the old system, which had one ranger splitting time between patrols and administration. That review was ordered after a retired park ranger sued the city in 2009, alleging that head patrol officer Marcus Santiago was playing favorites when doling out overtime shifts. The city and the retired ranger agreed to a $250,000 settlement, pending approval by the Board of Supervisors.

Lotti said he's been approving almost all overtime shifts since he started and won't tolerate any unethical behavior.

Enlisting other departments

A police officer in Belmont for 18 years, Lotti said he was the type of guy who cracked jokes in the tense moments before raids on the SWAT team he ran. In 2003, he entered a situation much like the one he faces now when he was hired by the Colma Police Department to give the force a new direction. Armed with a master's degree in public administration, Lotti said he's learned that public safety officials are sometimes too narrowly focused on their role as law enforcement without enlisting other city departments for help.

"You can't enforce your way out of everything," he said.

Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg said he wasn't concerned about Lotti's lack of experience with parks and put more emphasis on finding someone who could "professionalize" the unit.

"We had an inadequate number of parks rangers, and they didn't have adequate supervision," Ginsburg said. "This is a unit which really requires greater day-to-day management and administrative expertise."

The unit Lotti inherits is expanding. After a string of high-profile vandalism incidents in the spring damaged brand-new playgrounds, Mayor Ed Lee announced that the city would fill nine vacant park patrol positions. The unit is expected to be fully staffed with 25 members by May, which will increase the total budget of the park patrol by $113,000 to $2.54 million. Lotti will earn $111,000 annually, according to the department.

Vandalism at park facilities has cost the department more than $1.3 million over the past six years. On a recent patrol with a reporter at Dolores Park, whose playground was defaced in April just 24 hours after a grand reopening, Lotti spotted a broken mallet on one of the playground's percussion play instruments.

"These are the things that just drive you nuts," he said, taking a picture with his cell phone.

While Lotti thinks it will help to have three or four rangers patrolling the parks at all times instead of the current two once more officers are hired, he believes more enforcement isn't the only solution. Working more closely with police and neighborhoods is one of Lotti's main goals; he required his officers in Colma to appear at four community events a month.

And one of the ideas about which Lotti is most passionate seems like a no-brainer - keeping better track of what park rangers do.

Creating database

Right now, there's only an antiquated written log of incidents reported by park rangers. Creating a computerized, searchable database of patrol reports like he did in Colma, where records were once just kept on index cards, would be critical in determining how to deploy resources.

"I want our enforcement to be selective and purposeful," he said. "Just throwing resources out there without background is a waste."

For now, Lotti is still in observation mode and said it will be a few months before he feels he has enough information to make any major changes to the unit. To politicians demanding a halt to park vandalism, Lotti asks for patience.

"If you're going to do something, do it right the first time," he said.